Greenbelt artist-in-residence, Gina Mai Denn, ended up telemarketing and living with her parents when she couldn’t find an art job after graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She recalled selling Betty White an inflatable raft and getting a call from Dr. Joyce Brothers while taking phone orders in her next job at Joan Cook Catalogue in Florida. She had switched jobs because she didn’t like telemarketing, and her numbers showed it. “I don’t think I made one sale,” she said. Times were hard for the 1990 graduate of Alfred University in New York. Her first jobs were letdowns …

Memories of Japan and its people have been wafting through my mind this week, taking me back to the land of kimonos, cherry trees and the noble people of my childhood days. Once again, I am encountering its gentle and strong citizens, this time in great crisis. As a young girl living on the Kantamura Air Force Base near Tokyo, the Japanese people made an enduring impression on me. I can’t point to the exact time when I came to know them—because like their movements that were small, quiet, soft—their impression grew on me in an oxygen-like fashion: all around with no visible drama yet giving …

With one more planet to go, Greenbelt cut paper artist, Sherill Anne Gross, is on a mission to finish creating all our solar system’s planets in time for an art exhibit at Yuri’s Night – an annual worldwide party named after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin for being the first person to journey into outer space. Sherill is putting paper to her own idea of Miss Universe, a pageant where all nine planets strut around seeing who’s going to win. Yes, nine. She includes our recent cosmic outcast in the mix because “Pluto is still a planet in my opinion,” she said. Sherill’s latest art extravaganza of…

The oasis of nature and recreation that Greenbelt prides itself in offering barely resembles the dark confines of the apartment walls where many of our children hunker down behind bolted doors. “Our neighborhood” said Greenbelt Middle School eighth grader Emmanuel, “it’s like an episode of 'Cops.'” “I got robbed,” said Rahat, who lives in Greenbriar. He wishes there were more police patrolling his neighborhood.  “You’re not safe at night,” he said. “You can’t just go outside because you don’t know what’s going to happen.” I went to talk with Danica Woodyard’s honors talented and gifted eighth…

Bailey Henneberg went to the Roosevelt Center to talk to Greenbelters and friends about the ups and downs of love and Valentine's Day in this 2010 video, originally broadcast on YouTube. Town folks and University of Maryland professor Judith Hallett share insight and humor on the day of love.

Greenbelt Museum's historic house reopens this weekend to resume its Sunday hours, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., offering a walk through the frugal lifestyles and history of residents from 1937 to 1952. In our video, museum director Megan Searing Young touches on the highlights. For the full tour and historical reminiscence, visitors can drop in on Sundays without reservations or can book a group tour in advance. General admission is $3. Adults 55 and older pay $2. Children under 12 pay $1. Friends of the Greenbelt Museum are always free.

Nearly 200 acres of forest preserve land form the “belt” from which all of Greenbelt derives its name, yet I wonder how many of us merely know the periphery. “We have some trails and trees that would rival what you would see in western Maryland or the Appalachians,” Greenbelt Homes, Inc. maintenance operations manager Matt Berres said. “They’re in your back yard, right here in a metropolitan area.” The woodlands were vital to our town’s founding vision, a vision of which Greenbelt, old and new, are all beneficiaries. My dad moved here when he was eight years old in one of the waves of pioneer…

“Cloning is so foreign to me, I can’t imagine it ever happening,” Kathy Kyser said. Bill Swartz could imagine it, but had this warning: “I would be pretty cautious about human cloning until we understood a little more about cloning in other organisms.” “I’m not too much in favor of it,” Lore Rosenthal said. “A lot of problems on earth are because we’re not listening to the natural heartbeat of the earth.” While hanging out at the New Deal Café last Sunday night, they and other patrons kicked back and shared their thoughts on cloning. How did the topic come up? Well, that was my idea. Maybe I …

In my world, 2010 was about loss. In nearly one year, my mom died, my home value crashed, I broke my foot, and watched as the Internet sent printing and video industries plummeting into layoffs that tapped me on the shoulder, asking, "Pardon me mam, would you like to dance?" I'm not a great dancer, but if I could sing, I'd be a country sensation crooning lyrics like, "You picked a fine time to break oh my foot," or how about "I searched the world over, and I thought I'd found a job, You met the Internet and PFFT! you was gone!" As I hesitantly wandered out Dec. 16, the evening of Greenbelt's …

Sixty-nine years after the "date which will live in infamy," members of The American Legion's Department of Maryland gathered together at Greenbelt Post 136 on Dec. 7th for a national homeland security and foreign relations forum, where they remembered those who fought and died in 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor - and honored the survivors.

NASA scientist and Greenbelt resident Claire Parkinson will be inducted into the American Philosphical Society Friday morning, Nov. 12, in Philadelphia. Known worldwide for her research on polar sea ice and its connectivity to climate and climate change, Parkinson joins leaders honored by the society as distinguished scientists, humanists, social scientists, and leaders in civic and cultural affairs.  Before leaving her work at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for Philadelphia, Parkinson met with Patch's Bailey Henneberg to talk about the pioneering work that gained Parkinson recognition …

The first person to weigh in with me on the noisy walls of old Greenbelt was a young mom out on a walk near Hillside Road, "Our neighbors snore really loud, pound up and down the stairs, have clocks that chirp with different bird songs at the different hours," said Elizabeth, who lives in a frame on Ridge Road. Despite this, Elizabeth endures the noise because with kids and a dog on her side of the walls, she thinks they're bearing with her too. Heather Costen also thinks her neighbors are practicing tolerance. Pushing her youngest daughter in a stroller while her other two walked alongside…

My first experience with the sound-traveling walls of GHI homes came suddenly, like a heart attack or, in this case, asthma. Having more possessions than a 628-square-foot home could handle – even if it had real closets – I moved in one July 2008 morning ready to whip my home into showpiece efficiency. Many hours later, with an optimism that had fallen deep into the red, I collapsed onto my mattress close to midnight. By 10-Mississippi, I was out until a loud, crashing, near-explosive sound alerted me to the unmistakable noise of an intruder. Grabbing my phone and police-powered pepper spray…

Bailey Henneberg caught up with Bob Cahalan at NASA Goddard to talk about his high impact work to explore the power of the sun and how much of its energy our planet is taking in and bouncing back. It's a delicate dance that has serious implications on weather, global warming, our food supply and ultimately our survival. Bob Cahalan and NASA's top brain brawn are at the center of boldly discovering depths of energy that no human has known before.

This past week was Active Aging Week, where several multi-generational classes were offered for free at the Greenbelt Community Center to promote healthy and active lifestyles for all ages. Greenbelt Patch columnist Bailey Henneberg caught up with the Holy Cross senior exercise class to ask residents how they stay fit and flexible.